Last Week
Trip Start
Jun 23, 2008
1
8
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Meribel,
France
Monday, July 7, 2008
Last Tuesday Sophie and I went to visit her friend, Emilie, in Bozel. We ate lunch by a little lake. I had a really good salad and some fries. I was a little perturbed by all the children stripping naked and changing into their swimsuits less than 50 feet from me but what can you do? After this we drove up to Champagny where we had ice cream in a valley between enormous looming mountains. I am, unfortunately, unaware of any literary device that I could use to convey the sheer size of these mountains (Other than: Mountains are big!). You may think "between mountains" means that they were far away. But there were goats sitting on these mountains and you could see them chewing their cud over the top of the little chalet where we bought our dessert. I was really amazed. Anyways I took a bunch of photos and then we left.
Antoine and Svetlana
I should add that the roads here are terrifying. In Canada the road is always big enough for two cars, relatively straight, and there is some clearance on the sides. Plus we like to do something called "slowing down" when we go around a hairpin corner. In Canada squealing tires are considered a sign that something is wrong. Here the road is mostly a monstrously twisted narrow trail hedged in by an overhanging sheer rock wall on one side and, what can only be described as, an abyss on the other. Sophie informs me that the few times that a wall has been built between the road and the abyss it was in response to an accident. Yes there is only a wall if a vacationing family has already plummeted to their doom. Otherwise what's the point? Most of the rock walls have netting installed to hold back the rocks that, not might, but, will fall. On top of all this people actually pass other cars (because they are being too cautious I assume). I have to try very hard to not spend all my in-car time envisioning horrible head on collisions and long, spiraling, smoke-trailing falls into the valley below where the car would explode but somehow leave me alive without my face, arms, or legs. I try to read or play game boy but the twisting and turning makes me one ill unless they look out the window. So I am forced, clockwork orange style, to witness the macabre horror show unfolding before me. Sophie's father asked me today about the possibilities of getting a French license
Bozel
.On Wednesday Sophie and I did some work in the Garden. We picked spinach and piled wood. I have taken some responsibility for the pond in the front yard. There is a growing snail population and Sophie's mother was worried that they may take over the pond. Is human intervention necessary? we wondered. I did some research on the Internet. But pond maintenance has a very unbalanced web presence. A lot of sites are just trying to get you to buy stuff. They try to tell you that you need to buy chemicals and bacteria culture. That you need to have a filter and air pump. It just didn't seem right to me. After a solid afternoon of research I realized that their are two types of ponds. The first type is a natural pond with fish, snails, frogs, insects, algae, flowers, and water. This type of pond requires minimal maintenance. Skim the algae if their is too much, remove some fish when the population is too big. You basically just make sure the nitrogen cycle stays balanced. The second type of pond is an abomination of nature. Fish in a pool of perfect clear blue water. No snails. No frogs, No algae. This pond needs constant maintenance. The waste produced by the fish turns into ammonia, which is poison. This needs to be filtered out. the filter needs to be cleaned and restocked with bacteria cultures constantly. Any new creatures, like snails or frogs, can upset the balance and need to be evicted
Bozel
. The water needs to be treated with chemicals to prevent algae growth and the water needs to be oxygenated. Water needs to be replaced all the time to prevent excess build up of nitrites and nitrates and the water you put in needs to be treated beforehand to prevent it from upsetting the ridiculously fragile balance your stupid artificial pond would have. But this pond will look better. It's no surprise that the sites promoting this type of pond take a sneering attitude towards the prior kind. They also need to strongly advise against building your pond on any kind of hill as the chemical fertilizers you would probably use on your lawn to keep it as overly idealistic as your pond would seep into the water and kill everything. All in all it's a lot of work to create something that will require a f'ing babysitter if you go on vacation. After reading all this we decided to keep the snails. a few days later some lovely string algae was forming and some baby fish had appeared to nibble on it. I even had to get into the pond to replant a water lilly that had uprooted itself. What an adventure.On Thursday Sophie and I went to Chambery, the capital of Savoy, with her parents and their friends. I got a new shirt and some shorts which I will hopefully soon use for hiking. Chambery's history is deeply interwoven with the history of the House of Savoy a family which grew from ruling the region of Savoy to nearly the whole Italian peninsula. Chambery was the capital of the House of Savoy until 1563 when the title was transferred to Turin. In 1860 Savoy was absorbed by France in an agreement with Napoleon III and Chambery became it's capital. At this point the House of Savoy became the rulers of the first unified kingdom of Italy though they no longer ruled Savoy. In 1946, after a complex series of events, the House of Savoy was forced to give up power and flee to Egypt
A really good Salad
. The living members of the house of Savoy are no strangers to controversy. In May 2004 two cousins from the house of Savoy, Victor Emmanuel and Duke Amadeo, got into a fist fight at a dinner held by the king of Spain. In 2006 the same Victor Emmanuel was arrested for recruiting prostitutes. All this after he shot and killed a man named Dick Hamer by accident in 1978 (while attempting to shoot someone on purpose for stealing his yacht's rubber dingy - a rubber dingy)! He is one of my, if not my most, favorite deposed royal figure!After Chambery we had a nice dinner and went home on the roads of horror
On Friday we went shopping for groceries. The Grocery stores here are a little different than in Canada. The cheese section is very large. The Deli section has some very nice and exotic meats. There is almost no soda and there are no chips. There is a lot of yogurt and alcohol. Then you go around a corner and there is more cheese! And the Chocolate section is amazing!
Sophie and I made Calzones for dinner. They were okay but it was a new recipe and not the one that we used in Canada. Not the one that inspired us to make calzones for everyone after bragging about how good they were
Scary Overhanging Rocks
.On Saturday I went golfing with Sophie's brother. I have never golfed before but I did ok. I had a good time and the course was very nice. I took some good photos but unfortunatly I have a nasty virus on my computer and can't post them on here. Oh well. there was a party for Sophie's cousin on Saturday night. It was pretty nice. There was lots of wine and food and I was smart enough to switch to water halfway through to avoid the white wine headache the next day. I left the party for a bit during the night and took some nice photos of Les Allues but again I can't post them.
This morning was very cloudy. On cloudy days the clouds are everywhere. Above you, below you and all around. I took some nice photos and I'll upload them as soon as I get back on Sophie's computer. Which should be later today.
That should be all for now. Pictures to come and some more about how I'm doing in French.
Comments
they call me a catastrophizer...
and I live on flat land. The mountains are stunning but do you get a sore neck from looking up (for that boulder on it's way down)? Love the ancient-ness of the village scenes, can't you imagine Hannibal & elephants or legions of Romans or Crusaders trooping thru? C could tell you alot about ponds. Funny how you have to leave home to find this stuff out eh.
More later, Hi to Sophie, J.